Wizard Magazine Shuts Down, Company Goes Public

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UPDATED: The future of Wizard revealed!

By Joey Esposito

In an official press release, President and CEO of the now public company Wizard World confirmed the previous reports of Wizard Magazine's closure, which will also include Toyfare Magazine. He confirmed that the company has gone public and will now be the producers of the Comic Con Tour, holding events across major cities in the US.

In addition, the company will launch a brand-new digital magazine in February 2011.

"This is a very exciting day for Wizard World and the industries it serves," said Shamus. "Having the Tour produced by a public company provides additional opportunities to expand and grow the Tour. The new digital magazine Wizard World will give consumers the content they want in a magazine format with which they are familiar, but distributed in a form that is always available at any time on any device. It is a natural evolution for us in this market."

Wizard World also put the following, confusing blurb in the press release, as if to protect themselves from any potential shareholdes:

Statements in this press release relating to Wizard World's future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and prospects are "forward-looking statements" and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words "will", "future", "expect", "look forward to", similar expressions and any other statements that are not historical facts are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. Any such statement may be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Wizard World that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected, described, expressed or implied in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, particularly under the heading "Risk Factors." Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or by contacting Joe Favorito at (917) 566-8345 or fatherknickerbocker1@yahoo.com. All information set forth in this press release is current as of January 24, 2011. Wizard World undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

Our original report on this story is below:

According to the comics industry rumor site Bleeding Cool, Wizard Magazine is no more. That site's Rich Johnson reports that after "receiving multiple confirmations from across the industry", he has learned that Wizard Magazine has laid off nearly all of its staff and canceled all of its freelance contracts, ceasing publication. Wizard's partner magazine Toyfare, and the many conventions it sponsors have reportedly remained untouched.

As of press time, there has been no official comment from Wizard, but there have been tweets from industry folk like Warren Ellis wishing the Wizard staff well. It's also important to note that the "Subscriptions" link on WizardUniverse.com goes to a "Page Not Found" error.

Wizard Magazine began in 1991 as a go-to source of comic book industry news, reviews, and previews. The magazine's strong support of new publishers helped reinvigorate the competition of the comic book industry, heavily promoting people like Image Comics, who are now an industry leader.